The customisation wizard only removes previous versions from 6 and later. We had packaged and deployed acrobat 5 at some stage. To remove this before installing 8, add the following lines to vbscript before version 8 install section ( just need to put in your UNC location of the version 5 msi.) Much easier than using the uninstall string that comes with acrobat 5.

The print to PDF function changed in v8.1.2 in a way that non-admin-users can no longer use that feature. This version wants to write to a registry key in HKLM where the ordinary user has no rights to write to:

HKLM\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Distiller\8.0\PrinterJobControl\

Solution: Give the user/group write acccess to this key and all subkeys.

I found that we needed to have most users access Acrobat Reader, and only licensed users use Professional 8 (and see the Adobe PDF printer) on the same TS. To do this I created an Active Directory group for users with a license for the app, then configured a GPO to perform the following:

Set permissions on folder "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0"
- Remove all permissions for "users"
- Add full control for the Licensed group

The package comes as an MSI, but be aware. You MUST download a license file from the Adobe server in order for the application to be valid longer than 30 days. The serial number is no longer valid. The requestor of the application will be provided a user name and password to their site from where you can download this.

If you are deploying to multiple users (as was our problem) we had to download the license server and install it onto our local servers here. The license server would obtain the license files from adobes site (still a manual step here) and the users would obtain the files from the local license file we setup.

deployment of the msi was not to hard. Just perform an Admin install of the msi
msiexec /a <path to msi> Create a transform to include the serial number, and location of license server.

Do not bother calling Adobe for the license server, they have no idea since this is new for them.

3) Continued to edit the MSI to remove files from within the MSI because Radia had problems with the installion otherwise. The following file names are the proper ones that need to remain, delete the duplicate files that exist:
- Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\adobe_epic\eula\background.png = size 59KB

Edit the company-supplied MSI to delete the unwanted desktop icons as well as moved the *All Programs*
icons into an Adobe folder (just for a little added cleanup).

On first startup of the application after deployment, the user would have to download an e-license to the machine.
This would pull the license out of your license pool at Adobe, and thus make it to where you would have to deactivate the license before rebuilding the machine.

Adobe has to be contacted to get a master exception xml file. After Adobe is contacted, download this file
from Adobe's licensing site. Rename to "AdobeConfig.xml" and place in the directory on the network containing
the setup files. The company-supplied msi calls this xml during install, and if it is there will move it to the
Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8 directory on the client computer. This will make the client computer exempt from having to download the e-license.

You can also edit the MSI to remove the EULA on the first run of the application. Located in the following key
hklm_software_adobe_adobe acrobat_8.0_AdobeViewer

Adobe evidently thinks it knows your build security better than you do, so the first job to do when you have your transform is to delete the LockPermissions table.
[Edited 4th July 2007]
...except I now discover that some process - which I'm trying to track down but which more or more looks like the main Acrobat EXE - re-writes those permissions!

Here is how I did the installation at our facility. We ran into some problems because we were upgrading all existing users from professional v6. v6 needs to be uninstalled before v8 can be installed. v8 installer tries to do this, but as our users have limited user accounts, even if v8 installer is run as an administrator, it kicks off the v6 uninstaller as a limited user and fails, so we had to do a work around to get it to successfully uninstall the v6.

2. Created a transform with the Adobe Customization Wizard 8 (see links in posts above). In the 'EULA and Online Features' section, check the box to 'Add Licence Management File' then click 'Modify...' and navigate to the 'AdobeConfig.xml' file that came with the download from step 1.

3. Created a Base Install ZENWorks application using the MSI and MST that I just created. I have this application run Adobe Acrobat 8 after installation as an administrator level user. (eLic isn't really disabled, it just comes with a valid eLic. Apparently it can't register the eLic with the computer as a limited user so I have to run Adobe Acrobat 1 time as an administrator so that eLic takes hold and no crashes happen). This application is not visible to the user. Oh, and we hide all the program's shortcut icons so we can recreate/control them using ZENWorks.)

4. Next I created a v6 removal tool application as follows:
-Copies 3 files to user's local machine: a .vbs file, a .bat file and the AcroPro.msi (v6). Files are copied to 'C:\Program Files\MyCompany\Adobe Acrobat 6 Pro Removal\'.
-The vbs file launches the bat file using a runas command and runs the bat file as an administrator.
-The bat file runs the msiexec to uninstall acrobat v6 (as an administrator so it completes successfully). Once the uninstall is complete, it deletes the vbs file since the vbs file has the admin password for the machine in clear text.
-The code for the files will be listed below.

5. The Base install is set so that it is not available until the removal tool is run.

6. I created an application that will launch the base install. This application has a dependancy (not availability) to the base install applicaton. It does NOT launch the program once installed. This application is only available (using availability) after the removal tool is run, and if the base install has NOT take place.

7. I created another application that will run Acobat v8 as the logged in user. This application has no dependancies, but is NOT available until after the base install has take place.

The reason for the last two applications is this: if we always run Acrobat as the administrator (the app in #3), it works fine execpt the user doesn't get any of thier network drives, becuase the administrator local account isn't logged into the network. BUT it does have to be run as an admin 1x or it doesn't register properly. So we run it once as an admin, then use a different application to run it as the logged in user.

I created an ADM file for the following HKCU settings because we wanted to set the following:

1. Get rid of the splashscreen
2. Set the organization name
3. Change the connection speed to LAN
4. Set the spelling to English (United Kingdom)
5. Change page units to metric.

The ADM file contains the settings for both Adobe Reader 8.x and Adobe Acrobat 8.x.

When adding the policy, you'll need to ensure that the filter on your GPO editor is set to also display settings that can't be fully managed. This is because the settings are stored outside the "policy" key.

Here's the ADM (copy and paste into notepad to retain formatting, hopefully):

[strings]
CustomHeader= "Custom Policies"
ExplainNosplash="When disabled, the program will not display a splashscreen on startup.\n\nWhen enabled, the splashscreen will be displayed."
ExplainOrgName="Enter the organization name by typing it in."
ExplainConnection="To specify LAN, set the connection speed to 10000000."
ExplainPageUnits="Set the page unit from the drop-down list.\n\nThe default is millimeters."
ExplainDictionary="Used to specify the default dictionary to spell checking."

Deploying Acrobat Professional 8.1.2 to users without local admin rights.

If user does not have admin right on the local machine, they were having issues in generating a PDF from Office and other applications. The job would hang in the "Adobe PDF" printer and never complete.

Resolved issue by modifying the permissions by allowing the Users group Full Control on the following key:

Microsoft AppV, Windows 7. I extracted, began monitoring, installed to Q:\ and then deleted the updater5 folder from the VFS, the software launches fine. I haven't tested the functionality. Looks promising though.